March 24, 2023
The Dutch owner of a VW Golf TDI bought in 2010 has to be paid a compensation fee of €3 000 because his car contained fraudulent software. It’s the first judgment in court out of four cases introduced by the Stichting Volkswagen Group Diesel Efficiency (VGDES) and the consumer organization Consumentenbond. Meanwhile, European law has […]
March 23, 2023
Dutch rail is struggling with a badger plague. The animals often nest near and under railway tracks, which today is the case at forty locations, particularly in the eastern part of the country. After acute difficulties in Friesland, the animals are now causing problems between Eindhoven and Den Bosch. Rail manager ProRail fears that the […]
March 22, 2023
Brussels Airlines and sister airlines Lufthansa and Swiss are going to the Council of State against the new system of variable airfares at Brussels Airport. The new fares will take effect on 1 April. The airlines’ appeal is against the Terminal Navigation Charges elaborated by Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo). The charges, which must be […]
March 21, 2023
If it were up to Audi, we would all have a flowerpot in our car. That is why the premium car brand introduces the ‘car plant’, an absolute first for the renewed Audi Q8 e-tron. With this innovation, Audi responds to the needs of almost one in four car owners (24%) who would like to […]
March 21, 2023
To keep global warming below 1,5°C, greenhouse gas emissions must go down immediately. This means no more greenhouse gases may be released than can be restored or removed from the atmosphere. That is the alarming conclusion of the latest report of the IPCC, the climate panel of the United Nations. “The most important message is […]
March 20, 2023
According to a Reuters report, Volkswagen plan to invest in mining with its subsidiary PowerCo to ower EV battery costs. Many car makers have preferential contracts with raw material suppliers in their pockets. Still, the German carmaker wants to go one step further and go directly to the source by absorbing mining activities in its […]
March 17, 2023
Tesla is putting the bricks into place to ramp up production in its Grünheide facility, close to Berlin, to 1 million cars annually. An environmental application has been filed to double the permitted output of today. Currently, the German plant churns out 4 000 units of Model Y per week. But according to the original […]
March 17, 2023
Lithium de France, a subsidiary of the French group Arverne, has raised 44 million in funds for the explorations to build its first well. The company, based in Bischwiller (Bas-Rhin), near Strasbourg, will develop two synergistic projects around geothermal heat and green lithium in northern Alsace. The two main investors in the fund Equinox Ventures, […]
March 15, 2023
Global warming is causing more and more extreme weather conditions. According to the Dutch weather and climate institute KNMI (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut), 2022 was the driest and sunniest year ever registered since the beginning of the measuring. According to KNMI’s latest report, ‘The State of our Climate’, the summer of 2022 got 17% more […]
March 14, 2023
After Poland and Italy, a third EU member state, Germany, rejected the EU’s Parliament’s decision to ban ICE cars by 2035. Inside the German government, there is a serious disagreement between the liberal FDP party and the Green party, both members of the government coalition. The German Digital and Transport Minister Volker Wissing has blocked […]
March 13, 2023
Flemish Mobility Minister, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to install solar panels on the unused land of The Agency for Roads and Traffic (Agentschap Wegen en Verkeer, AWV) to generate renewable energy and reduce AWV’s high electricity bill. The last invoice amounted to no less than 45 million euros. The energy will mainly be used […]
March 13, 2023
The Belgian federal authorities will only buy or lease electric service vehicles from July 2024. The Council of Ministers has approved a plan by Minister of Civil Service Petra De Sutter (Groen) to this effect. One consequence of the measure is that by 2030 most service vehicles within the federal government will drive sustainably. The […]
March 10, 2023
A small group of defective or fraudulent vehicles is responsible for many harmful emissions in the Belgian port area. This is according to a study by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges that used ‘remote sensing’ to measure emissions from passing vehicles in and around the port. Based on such measurements, the researchers estimated that a truck […]
March 10, 2023
The MIUNIK Salt concept from German design firm ID Design is a lightweight, maneuverable, and practical electric motorcycle. It is built on a modular platform and intended for the urban dweller. The vehicle’s aim is to provide a multi-faceted user experience thanks to a very deliberate design that can be mixed and matched to suit […]
March 09, 2023
The Belgian marine engineering companies DEME and Jan De Nul and engineering office Tractebel have jointly developed new floating solar technology capable of operating in harsh marine conditions. This summer, they will set up a test installation off the Belgian coast for experiments. SEAVOLT, as the project is called, combines the expertise of solar, environmental, […]
March 09, 2023
A survey from RTL/N-TV is throwing more oil on the fire in Germany, as the country is currently obstructing the final vote on the de facto ban for combustion engines as of 2035. With only 14% in favor, national enthusiasm for the European deal is low. The probe unveiled that 68% of the German population […]
March 09, 2023
Brussels Mobility plans to start the redevelopment of Avenue Lambermont and General Wahis in the second half of 2024. Together with Auguste Reyers Avenue, which is being redesigned as a city boulevard, the two avenues form the Schaerbeek section of the Brussels Central Ring (R21). The public service has now applied for planning permission for […]
March 08, 2023
The focus of the Oosterweel works this year will be on the Right Bank of the river Scheldt. The first utility works in Antwerp are underway, but this autumn, both the construction of the bypass, temporarily replacing the Merksem viaduct, and the construction of the channel tunnels under the Albert Canal will start. In recent […]
March 08, 2023
A Republican senator from Florida has suggested limiting the use of electric vehicles during hurricane evacuations, arguing that the charging infrastructure is not ready yet and that EVs with empty batteries could become roadblocks in critical locations. However, others are not as worried or offer alternative solutions instead. Florida is a high-risk area for hurricanes, […]
March 08, 2023
Women’s lifestyles are less polluting than men’s, but the ‘fair sex’ is more often the victim of climate change. That is the remarkable conclusion of an economist consulted by the French international news agency AFP. A nice little tidbit to reveal on March 8th, International Women’s Day, focusing on issues such as gender (in)equality. “Even […]
March 08, 2023
In the port of Esbjerg, the first ship with captured CO2 from Belgium arrived to store the carbons in a depleted oil field in the Danish part of the North Sea. Called the Greensand project, this is considered the first cross-border offshore CO2 storage project in the world. With the incoming CO2 from the port […]
March 07, 2023
Urban.brussels has granted an urban development certificate to Brussels Mobility to create a city boulevard on Auguste Reyers Avenue, an arterial road in Schaerbeek where the public broadcasters VRT and RTBF are located. So reports Brussels State Secretary for Urban Planning Pascal Smet (one.brussels-Vooruit). Reyers Avenue will be reconstructed from facade to facade between Meiser […]
March 07, 2023
Agricultural machine specialist Fendt has presented a prototype of a field tractor equipped with hydrogen fuel cells at the German Hydrogen Summit in Straubing. Two units will be supplied for testing in the region of Lower Saxony as of next month. Fendt participates in the H2Agrar project, which researches the potential role of hydrogen in […]
March 07, 2023
In its Memorandum 2024, a series of recommendations ahead of next year’s elections, Network Sustainable Mobility (Netwerk Duurzame Mobiliteit, NDM) advocates the abolition of the company car and the introduction of an annual ‘proximity budget’ of 400 euros for every Belgian. “As long as the company car is in front of the door, you are […]
March 06, 2023
Audi has released some preliminary findings of its MaterialLoop project. In the end, this must lead to a closing material cycle used in its production lines. From the pilot, the German luxury brand has learned it can use steel coils to make inner door parts for its A4 model. As European companies are gearing up […]
March 06, 2023
At the end of 2022, Germany’s national car fleet counted more than one million EVs. A meaningful milestone, but it’s still a far stretch to the 15 million full-electric vehicles that Germany eyes for 2030. In one year time, the German zero-emission fleet grew by 68%, so progress is encouraging. The KBA, or Kraftfahrt Bundesambt, […]
March 06, 2023
Following its plan to start recycling electric vehicle lithium-ion battery systems this year, Mercedes has laid the first brick of its dedicated plant in Kuppenheim. If the works keep to the schedule, the first packs from its electrified vehicles, so plug-ins included, will be dismantled by the end of 2023. “This foundation symbolizes the decisive […]
March 06, 2023
Volkswagen has now officially unveiled the revised ID.3, in which the quality of the interior, in particular, is to be significantly improved. The powertrains remain unchanged (for the time being). Already in December, VW changed the configurator of its compact electric car and added a note that the delivery deadline had already been extended into […]
March 03, 2023
Wouldn’t it be a great idea to have today’s giant car carriers sailing the world’s oceans on merely wind power like the square-rigged sailings ships of centuries ago? The modern descendants of the Vikings, with Wallenius Wilhelmsen, a global ro-ro shipping company from Norway, and Swedish carmaker Volvo among others, are dreaming of realizing this […]
March 03, 2023
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by under 1% in 2022, which is less than initially feared. The growth of solar, wind, EVs, heat pumps, and energy efficiency helped limit the impacts of increased use of coal and oil amid the global energy crisis. That is the conclusion of a recent analysis, ‘CO2 Emissions in […]
March 02, 2023
They were already popping up sporadically behind the peloton, but now the Dutch BEAT Cycling dares to be the first cycling team to switch to all-electric cars to follow the racing cyclists. “This is not a little experiment,” says team manager Geert Broekhuizen in the Dutch newspaper Trouw. “We don’t have a backup plan. Better […]
March 01, 2023
Flemish citizens lose fifteen months of healthy life due to exposure to fine particles in the air. That is the disturbing conclusion of Statistiek Vlaanderen, the Flemish governmental agency network that develops statistics. Due to air pollution, in 2021, 153 healthy life years were lost (per 10 000 inhabitants) in the Flemish region, 10 000 […]
February 28, 2023
Volkswagen’s ID. Family is becoming more circular as the German car maker transfers some of its ecological materials used in the ID. Buzz. The latter was the most sustainable of the electric family and will now serve as a technology donor. The additional recycling materials will be introduced on ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, and ID.7, but […]
February 28, 2023
The construction of new wind farms at sea risks being delayed, reports research company BloombergNEF. The reason for the delay is the shortage of large vessels used for the installation of wind turbine foundations on the ocean floor. Offshore energy is considered a crucial alternative to fossil fuels. It should help reduce CO2 emissions and […]
February 24, 2023
Vattenfall, a state-owned Swedish multinational power company, and Stromma Group, a sightseeing bus and boat service provider operational in six countries, are investing in emission-free, electric sightseeing boats. They will kick off their project in Amsterdam, and electrify Stromma’s boat fleet to provide fossil-free transportation. Vattenfall will supply the battery system for the emission-free operation […]
February 22, 2023
For the first time since the European Union introduced the CO2 emission rights, the price of 100 euros per ton of CO2 was exceeded on Tuesday. The leading EU Allowance contract briefly peaked at 101,25 euros. A milestone reflecting the increased price factories and power plants have to pay when they pollute. The European Union […]
February 22, 2023
The BMW Group intends to source aluminum with significantly reduced CO2 emissions from Rio Tinto’s hydro-powered operations in Canada starting in 2024. It has signed a memorandum of understanding to this effect. Aluminum accounts for a quarter of the CO2 emissions in the supply chain of a medium-sized electrified car, and a manufacturer like BMW […]
February 17, 2023
A fifth less traffic in the Pentagon, more space for pedestrians, and a lot more people choosing to cycle. Those are the provisional results of six months of ‘Good Move’, the new circulation plan to reduce transit traffic in the Brussels city center. Bart Dhondt (Groen), the Brussels Alderman for Mobility, calls the results encouraging […]
February 15, 2023
The Brussels region is stepping up the fight against noise pollution. Environment Minister Alain Maron (Ecolo) presented a pilot project testing two noise radars on Tuesday. The aim is to provide Brussels residents with a pleasant and healthy noise environment. In 2019, the Brussels Region approved the quiet.brussels plan. The plan’s objective is to reduce […]
February 15, 2023
While the European Parliament finally ratified on Tuesday in Strasbourg the agreement with the 27 member states to ban all sales of new cars and vans with a combustion engine beyond 2035, heavy trucks and buses were targeted a few hours later by the Commission. They will have to reduce CO2 emissions by 90% in […]
February 14, 2023
The number of cyclists traveling through Brussels during the morning rush hours almost doubled in 2022 compared to 2021. Cyclists seem to be moving increasingly safely in the city. The conclusions come from the Bicycle Observatory. Four times a year, the Bicycle Observatory organizes bicycle countings in the Belgian capital. The 104 hours of manual […]
February 13, 2023
As more people chose Bolt’s shared e-scooters, 20 million fewer kilometers were driven by car worldwide. In doing so, Bolt users saved more than 2,4 million kg of CO2 in Europe alone. This is according to a study commissioned by Bolt, an Estonian mobility platform with more than 100 million customers and operating in over […]
February 10, 2023
John Deere, the American manufacturer of agriculture machinery and lawn care equipment, has just announced that it’s joining the electric revolution and launching a line of battery-powered residential ride-on lawnmowers. Up first is the Z370R Electric Ztrak Residential Zero Turn mower, launched on Tuesday. The new fully electric ride-on mower – an industry-first, according to […]
February 10, 2023
While the EU Commission is preparing a draft on future emission standards for heavy-duty trucks and buses (HDVs), the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) has published in a white paper its findings comparing life assessment greenhouse gas emissions of diesel, gas, bio-fuel, battery-electric, and fuel cell heavy trucks. And the clear winner is… no […]
February 09, 2023
In the future, the supply and demand of electricity will increasingly depend on the weather circumstances. That is the conclusion of the International Energy Agency’s latest report presented in Paris on Wednesday. The report highlights the need for faster decarbonization and accelerated deployment of clean energy technologies. Drought and heat waves in Europe, India, and […]
February 08, 2023
A new Pathway Report by international consultancy firm Kearney, jointly ordered by electric carmakers Polestar and Rivian, warns that without measures to decarbonize the whole well-to-wheel cycle, carmakers globally will overshoot the +1,5°C climate warming limit set by the IPCC by 75% in 2050. Entirely switching to BEVs across the entire global car fleet and […]
February 08, 2023
Plug-in hybrid cars are still presented as a climate solution. Still, tests on the newest generation of PHEVs indicate they pollute significantly more than claimed on city and commuter routes, says the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). Two years ago, T&E discovered that the PHEV technology polluted significantly more than advertised on longer routes. Now […]
February 07, 2023
The US Treasury Department has amended the criteria for clean vehicles eligible for a subsidy under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). While some crossovers didn’t qualify, the administration has rectified the vehicle classification definitions, which raises the price limits for specific models — a clear win for opposing car makers. The IRA, launched in August […]
February 07, 2023
For the first time, Denmark has granted permits to store carbon dioxide (CO2) under the North Sea seabed on a large scale. The Danish climate and energy ministry announced this on Monday. Two projects are involved: French energy group TotalEnergies (Bifrost) and a consortium of British chemical giant Ineos and German oil company and gas […]
February 06, 2023
The BMW Group is accelerating its ramp-up of e-mobility, and is poised to gain even more momentum with its next vehicle generation, the ‘Neue Klasse’. The BMW plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, will produce fully-electric models for the New Class in the future and is setting up its own high-voltage battery assembly for this […]
February 02, 2023
Since 2020, the nine ministers of the Flemish government have covered 1 325 379 kilometers with their service cars. That’s the equivalent of driving around the earth 33 times. Zuhal Demir (N-VA), Minister for the Environment, who lives in the remote province of Limburg, beats them all with 308 840 km on the counter. In […]
February 01, 2023
The European Commission has selected ten pilot projects for new train connections between European cities. One of those pilot projects is a new night train, connecting Amsterdam, Brussels, and Barcelona, similar to European Sleeper’s earlier announced Brussels-Amsterdam-Berlin line. The Commission will also support several other pilot projects to stimulate the expansion of international rail traffic […]
February 01, 2023
Ahead of the unveiling of the Green Deal Industry Plan, Luca de Meo, the new President of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) and Renault Group CEO, is urging EU leaders to put in place an ambitious and structured automotive, and industrial policy, to rival those of other world regions. Concerned about the EU industry’s […]
January 27, 2023
French carmaker Peugeot is accelerating its electrification strategy. At the e-Lion event on Thursday, it announced that every Peugeot in the range will offer a battery-powered version as of 2025. The company also said it was looking into making cars last a lifetime by updating and refurbishing the car along the way. It predicts that […]
January 27, 2023
French automaker Renault has teamed up with compatriot R-FIT to offer, in 2023, electric retrofit kits for its iconic R4, R5, and later also for the first generation of the Twingo. A complete retrofit kit for the Renault 4 costs €11 900, VAT, and installation included. And the government is willing to subsidize it from […]
January 26, 2023
After 4,5 years of work, Amsterdam has inaugurated a new, underground bicycle shelter in front of the central station of Amsterdam. The secured bike racks, built under the water of the station square, offer parking space for almost 7 000 vehicles. Cyclists can park their bikes 24/7, the first 24 hours are free. Cyclists enter […]
January 25, 2023
German multinational energy company RWE is building two new plants in the Maastricht-Roermond region in the Netherlands, to produce 54 000 tons of green hydrogen yearly out of 700 000 tons of municipal solid waste that otherwise would have to be incinerated. Hydrogen from non-recyclable solid waste streams saves around 3,6 million tons of CO2 […]
January 24, 2023
Public transport company De Lijn has ordered the first 17 electric tram buses for the Spartacus project in Limburg. The decision was made in May last year to shelve the almost 18-year-old plans for a tram connection between Hasselt and Maastricht and replace it by electric buses to be delivered now by Dutch-Belgian bus builder […]
January 24, 2023
The French start-up Fairbrics, a pioneer in the field, wants to capture the CO2 released by manufacturers to transform it while using molecular chemistry into polyester spools for the clothing industry. To that end, it will establish a factory in Antwerp, a pioneering project that should be up and running by mid-2024. The project is […]
January 20, 2023
In 2022, car recycling organization Febelauto recuperated 120 tons of hybrid and electric vehicle batteries to be recycled. Three times more than the 37 tons of the previous year. “This year, we should arrive at about 400 tons because the volume is expected to triple each year,” explains Catherine Lenaerts, director of Febelauto. About 48% […]
